What Bill Nye’s composure can teach us about handling climate sceptics

In a recent interview with CNN, Scott Pruitt had the nerve to avoid climate change discussion yet again, stating this time that right now was not the “right time” to talk about such trifles.

In the face of the incredible tragedies of the past few weeks, the guy is still ignoring the scientific consensus on man caused global warming. Experts have been clear on pointing out that the increased strength of this year’s hurricanes is attributed to climate change, the very thing Pruitt repeatedly wants to ignore.

“All I’m saying to you is, to use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to people in Florida.” said the considerate public serviceman, placed in his office by an even more gracious fellow who we all remember has repeatedly stated that climate change is a “hoax” perpetuated by the Chinese.

So what can we do about it at Techly? Well, for every time Pruitt avoids climate change discussion, we’ll just do the very opposite. Bring the discussion back to the table.

This time, we want to remember that time when Bill Nye slammed CNN’s ‘New Day’ program for inviting William Happer, a physicist who claims with a straight face that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.

He said on the show, “There’s this myth that’s developed around carbon dioxide that it’s a pollutant…But you and I both exhale carbon dioxide with every breath. Each of us emits about two pounds of carbon dioxide a day, so are we polluting the planet?”

Before refuting such an atrocious declaration, the visibly annoyed Nye couldn’t help himself from reproaching CNN’s decision to invite Happer in the first place – “I will say, as much as I love the CNN, you’re doing a disservice by having one climate change sceptic, and not 97 or 98 scientists or engineers concerned about climate change,”

Before rising to fame as ‘The Science Guy’, Nye graduated in mechanical engineering from Cornell University. He worked at Boeing as part of a team designing parts for their Boeing 747 line, and also collaborated with NASA to develop the MarsDial, a sundial and camera calibrator, for the Mars Exploration Rover project. Nye currently serves as head of The Planetary Society, a nonprofit co-founded by astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

About the author

Filmmaker. 3D artist. Procrastination guru. I spend most of my time doing VFX work for my upcoming film Servicios Públicos, a sci-fi dystopia about robots, overpopulated cities and tyrant states. @iampineros